Comment/Question:
Ever since I can remember, the ministry from “our” fellowship on Matthew 18:20 has been that people don’t gather themselves to meet around the Lord, but that it is an outside force, as a person gathers eggs into a basket, and the eggs don’t gather themselves. I find great help in studying the word meanings found in Strong’s Concordance. So I looked up the meanings of the word “gathered” in the New Testament and I found several different meanings of the word. Matthew 18:20 uses the Greek word (#4863). If you read the meaning of that word, you might be surprised! It directly states that those people gathered themselves together! Other words, that that Greek word came from do imply an outside force, but #4863 is used in many other scriptures, such as “great multitudes gathering together,” “Pharisees gathered together,” “whole band of soldiers gathered” and many more! My question is, that if that same word is used for all these ungodly people gathering together, how can we use it and so precisely dissect the meaning so as to imply that only a minute few in the entire body of Christ would be the only ones who are “gathered by an outside force”—in this case the Holy Spirit—and not any others in the body, who do not see certain Scriptures as “we” do?
Answer:
We are thankful that this person has heard the truth; it is an indication that it is still being taught. To go into the Greek, in Matthew 18:20, in an attempt to show that the original language supports the rendering of modern translations, such as the NIV, which says, “come together,” is an old argument. But is it correct?
“Are Gathered” or “Come Together”
Much of the confusion that people have in regard to this may come from seeing or hearing one side of the truth only. It is not that the Spirit of God sovereignly gathers people to the Lord’s name and that they have no exercise about it; that would not be the whole truth. Scripture presents two sides of being gathered together where the Lord is in the midst. One is in Matthew 18:20, where the Spirit is seen as the gathering force. He brings Christians to “where” the Lord is “in the midst.” When Scripture speaks of the truth of gathering from this side, the Greek word “sunago” is used, which means, “to lead together” or “to bring together.” The other side is in 1 Corinthians 11-14. A number of times, Paul speaks of the saints coming together for the breaking of bread or for ministry from the Word (1 Cor. 11:17, 18, 20, 33, 34; 14:23, 26). When Scripture speaks of gathering from this side, the Greek word “sunerkomai” is used, which means, “to come together” or “go with.” This involves the volition of the saints in coming together. It is something they do. It seems that our questioner would like “sunerkomai” to be the word used in Matthew 18:20, because it fits with his or her doctrine. However, Scripture does not use that word in Matthew 18:20.
Vine’s dictionary points to Matthew 2:4 as an example of the use of “sunago” having an outside force involved in gathering people or things. It says, “When he [Herod] had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together ... ” The point is that someone does the work of gathering. It could be the Lord, or men, or the devil. In the case cited, it was Herod.
In giving us the meaning of “sunago” in the original language, our questioner does not seem to be altogether honest in emphasizing the rare third and fourth alternate meanings in Strong’s concordance when the first and main meaning is “to lead together.” In the 62 times where “sunago” is found in Scripture, it is only translated “came together” 6 times in the KJV. In each of these six references there is no difficulty in seeing that there was a power in action outside of those who gathered themselves together—be it the Lord, or men, or the devil (Matt. 27:62; Mark 7:1; Luke 22:66; Acts 13:44; 15:6; 20:7). It seems to be (we hope it isn’t) a deliberate attempt to find another meaning for the word to support the idea of it being the volition of men gathering themselves together. And why not emphasize the fifth alternate meaning, which is, “lead into,” which also points to an outside power being active?
The references that are brought forward by our questioner where the word “sunago” is used—“great multitudes gathering together,” “the Pharisees gathered together,” “the whole band of soldiers gathered”—do not set aside the possibility of a gatherer working behind the scenes. In the light of Psalm 18:4, which says, “Torrents of Belial made Me afraid” (2 Cor. 6:15) and Psalm 22:21, “Save Me from the lion’s mouth” (1 Peter 5:8), it is clear that Satan was active in whipping the crowds into a frenzy and bringing them together against the Lord. He was behind the gathering together of those wicked people.
An important principle that we should always remember when handling the Scriptures is that we should never bring our pre-conceived ideas to Scripture, but rather, take our thoughts from Scripture. This was the habit of the Apostle Paul. It says that he “reasoned with them out of the Scriptures” (Acts 17:2). Note: he didn’t reason into the Scriptures, but out of them. We are afraid that this is the problem here. When a person does not want to believe that God has a gathering center in Christianity, and he takes that thought to the Scriptures, he will try to make the Scriptures support his idea. He will go to great lengths trying to make his point—even to taking the third or fourth alternate reading in a Greek lexicon or dictionary—but such is a work of the flesh (Eccl. 10:10).
Summary:
We are not Greek scholars, so to imagine that we are better equipped to translate Matthew 18:20 than J. N. Darby and W. Kelly were, is a mistake. We need to accept their understanding and scholarship. We know that the word “sunago” means, first and foremost, “to lead together,” or “to bring together,” which points to a power outside of those gathered being active. This ought to be enough for the willing mind to accept.